Nanotechnology may offer alternative to radiation for cancer patients

Jie Chen, a nanotechnology engineer at the University of Alberta, is using nanotechnology to develop new cancer treatments that could one day replace radiation and chemotherapy. He is doing experiments with injected nanoparticles that contain a bamboo compound that is sensitive to ultrasound.

“So when the ultrasound is used and treated or targeted towards these compounds, then you will activate and generate something which can destroy the cancer, so it’s much safer compared to the conventional radiation.”

Dr. Nils Petersen, director general of the National Institute for Nanotechnology in Edmonton, said nanotech promises better, faster and cheaper ways of diagnosing and treating disease, developing drugs — even regrowing teeth.

“It is going to be pervasive, and it’s going to be something that will influence and transform what we’re doing over the next several decades,” Petersen said.